Removing a False DWI Arrest Record From Online Search Results

Attorney Answer

The fastest fix is usually not a lawsuit. It is a written dispute to the companies reporting the record, because federal and Texas law both require them to reinvestigate and to delete what they cannot verify.

Under 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681i, when you dispute the completeness or accuracy of an item in your file, the consumer reporting agency must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation free of charge and either record the current status of the disputed information or delete it, generally within 30 days of receiving notice of your dispute. Information that cannot be verified must be promptly deleted or modified. That last clause is the leverage: if there is no such arrest, there is nothing for them to verify. A separate provision, 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681e(b), imposes the underlying duty to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy.

Texas gives you a parallel route with different timing. Tex. Bus. & Com. Code sec. 20.06 requires an agency, on notice of a dispute, to reinvestigate free of charge and record the current status not later than the 30th business day after receiving notice, and to notify each furnisher of the disputed information within five business days. It also entitles you to raise a dispute by speaking directly to a representative. An agency may terminate a reinvestigation it reasonably determines is frivolous or irrelevant, but the mere presence of contradictory information in your file is not by itself reasonable grounds for that determination. One threshold caveat: Chapter 20 regulates "consumer reporting agencies" as defined in Tex. Bus. & Com. Code sec. 20.01, and whether a particular background-screening vendor or data broker falls inside that definition is a question to answer, not to assume.

If instead you go after whoever published the false arrest record as a defamation claim, the clock is short. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code sec. 16.002(a) requires suit for libel or slander to be brought not later than one year after the day the cause of action accrues. Do not let these two clocks blur together — the federal statute has its own limitations period at 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681p, running two years from discovery and five years from the violation, which is a different rule from the Texas one-year defamation period.

The likeliest explanation, incidentally, is not malice. It is a name or date-of-birth mismatch propagated from a court or jail data feed into a dozen aggregator sites. That is worth knowing because it points you at the source record rather than at each website individually.

What you can do

1. Capture evidence today. Screenshot each page showing the false record with the full URL and date visible, and save the search results page too. 2. Get proof that you have no such record: order your own Texas criminal history from the Department of Public Safety, and if the entry names a specific county, request a records check from that county clerk. This document is the centerpiece of everything that follows. 3. Find the source. Most aggregator pages name where they got the record. Correcting the upstream source stops it regenerating after each takedown. 4. Dispute in writing to each consumer reporting agency — never by phone alone. Attach your identity documents and your clean criminal history, state plainly that no such arrest exists, and send it in a way that proves delivery. 5. Send a written correction demand to each website, identifying the exact URL, the false statement, and your proof. 6. If it is showing up on employment or tenant screening reports, dispute it with that specific screening company under both 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681i and Tex. Bus. & Com. Code sec. 20.06, and keep the dated copies. 7. Talk to a lawyer about a defamation claim well before the one-year period runs, and about an FCRA claim if an agency reinvestigates and still refuses to delete.

⏱ Time limits apply. Two different clocks are running and they are not interchangeable. Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code sec. 16.002(a) gives you one year from accrual to sue for libel or slander — short, and it runs from publication, so treat it as a deadline to act on now rather than background information. The federal consumer-reporting claim runs on its own period under 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681p. On top of both, the response windows start the day you send your dispute: 30 days under 15 U.S.C. sec. 1681i and 30 business days under Tex. Bus. & Com. Code sec. 20.06. When those windows apply to your situation depends on your specific facts and on when each item was published.